Blood Marauder
The Blood Marauders were first formed by the organization known as the Brothers of Blood as an elite unit meant to symbolize the group’s beliefs in power and raw strength. Appropriate to this mode of thinking, the Blood Marauders don’t utilize any kind of distance weapon so as to make their kills as visceral and personal as possible. They remain strictly a melee unit, meant to penetrate an enemy’s lines and wreak havoc wherever they go. The Blood Marauders have remained a potent and highly visual sign of Rolan’s military since their inception. Even after the Brothers of Blood were crushed by the emerging Laro Order, the Blood Marauders remained and were eventually integrated into the Laro Military. Per the tradition of the unit, the only people allowed to become Blood Marauders are full-blooded Rolani. This rule has survived the reforms that Queen Jesika Doljian has brought to Rolan for one simple reason: few candidates within Laro, other than the Rolani, are able to survive Blood Marauder training. =Training= Blood Marauder training is a vicious, brutal affair right from the start. Initiates are subjected to combat sessions to pare down the number of trainees to just twenty members, who will then go on to more advanced instruction. This is deemed necessary since it is considered a sign of high status on Rolan to become a Blood Marauder and, as such, there are often hundreds of applicants. True to the name of the unit, there is a frequent amount of bloodletting as prospective candidates engage in this initial no-holds barred combat against their fellow applicants. The only weapon allowed is the marauder scythe; the specialized bladed weapon used by the Blood Marauders. The energy function of the blade is deactivated for the purposes of these sessions. There is also an option available to go into combat unarmed, which actually sees a lot of popularity since it tends to serve as a good marker of who will make the final cut. Combat sessions can last for hours since Rolani have great stamina and endurance. Many candidates don’t survive the ordeal. Although there isn’t a penalty for directly killing another candidate, it is heavily discouraged. Instead, the most common means of death comes from the sheer number of injuries sustained during the combat sessions. After a week of these sessions, the final twenty advance to the next level of training… Advanced Training Although the need to prove themselves is over, the final twenty initiates are not given any rest from their prior combat sessions before they are put through an additional grueling three weeks. For this reason, it is rare for the full twenty to graduate from the class. In some cases, as few as five Rolani have been known to last the entire length of the training. This is to ensure that only the strongest and hardiest members succeed to achieve the honored rank. *'First Two Weeks' The first two weeks is dedicated entirely to combat. Initiates are instructed in advanced hand-to-hand combat, including how to use the marauder scythe most effectively in its powered and unpowered states. They are also instructed in how to use the other crucial tool in the Blood Marauder’s arsenal: the massive rampart shield. Initiates are expected to be able to lift the dense, and very heavy, metal shield with their own strength. Those who cannot (a rarity to see among the final twenty) are cut loose from the program. Those who do are then expected to wield it the entire time in a match against a fellow initiate. The fights are usually brief and the loser is not excised from the program as long as they kept a grip on the rampart shield the entire time. *'Third Week' The third and final week of advanced training is usually the most grueling. Initiates are taught about how to use, maintain, and effectively operate the Blood Marauder power armor. The initiates are deliberately deprived of sleep and constantly put through a series of repetitive drills. Failure to stay awake, or to execute the drills flawlessly on the last day, is another means of expulsion from the program. The members of the final twenty who make it this far have one last obstacle to overcome before they are declared a full-fledged Blood Marauder: the graduation test. Graduation Test The essence of the graduation test is to send a single initiate, fully equipped, against a numerically superior enemy and see how well they fair. Victory is not always essential to successfully pass the test. It is instead judged on the number of enemy lives the initiate kills before returning. Needless to say, some initiates fail to ever return – but depending on their performance before their death - they may be declared a Blood Marauder posthumously. In times of war, this test would pit an initiate against an actual enemy stronghold, one that a true Blood Marauder would be expected to be able to handle on their own. However, if the test is given in peacetime, the initiate is sent up against a simulated base filled with combat droids armed with live-fire weapons. Provided the initiate passes the test and survives, they are finally inducted as a true Blood Marauder. =Equipment= The arms and equipment of a Blood Marauder are simple but devastating. This is partly by tradition and partly to keep them at their fighting peak. It is believed that diversifying the armament would dilute the simple, yet savage efficiency of the Blood Marauder in battle. Weapons *'Marauder Scythe' The Marauder Scythe hearkens back to the earliest days of the Blood Marauders and has remained essentially unchanged since the first scythes were constructed. The blade is designed to be superheated at the press of a button, allowing it to cut through most body armors with comparative ease. Many Rolani prefer not to use this feature unless absolutely necessary since it makes combat “too easy.” Equipment *'Blood Marauder Power Armor' Blood Marauder Power Armor is the only piece of equipment that has seen significant advances since the days of the first Blood Marauders. The power armor is fully enclosed, allowing the marauders to operate in the vacuum of space and other hostile environments. The power armor is extremely simple, offering few integrations other than a jetpack, a robust personal shield generator, strength augmenters, and visual enhancement selections of the helmet. *'Rampart Shield' The Rampart Shield is a large part of what allows an exclusively melee unit like the Blood Marauder to be effective on a modern battlefield. They are basically exactly what they appear to be: large two meter high shields made of thick durasteel. They come equipped with a repulsorlift generator for ease of carrying in battle. The shields are meant to block incoming fire until a Blood Marauder can get up close to use their scythes, but an alternative tactic is to simply smash an enemy to pulp between the shield and a hard place. Category:Laro Order Category:Halomek